


You'll Always Have Me

by mikkimouse



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Captivity, M/M, Pre-Kerberos Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 09:38:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13361826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikkimouse/pseuds/mikkimouse
Summary: It's been five days since the Galaxy Garrison took Keith out of his dorm and stuck him in a cell, and he's beginning to suspect they don't intend to let him go.What he doesn't know is there's someone else who doesn't intend to give him up.





	You'll Always Have Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zenthisoror](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zenthisoror/gifts).



> For Zenthisoror for the Sheith Secret Santa. I really hope you enjoy this, and I hope I did your prompt justice!
> 
> Thank you to [cobrilee](http://cobrilee.tumblr.com/) and [paintedrecs](http://paintedrecs.tumblr.com/) for the beta read. Y'all are the absolute best.

Keith paced the little room where they'd stuck him five days ago. It wasn't a cell, exactly—it was the same size as his dorm, with the same extra-long twin bed, a desk, a sink, and a private bathroom, which was actually a step _up_ from the dorms. 

But there weren't any windows, and the only door locked from the outside. 

He had no idea what was going on with his classes; when he'd asked one of the officers, they just said he didn't have to worry about it. Keith had asked about his classwork—they were coming up on midterms and he was determined not to fail—but the response had been the same. 

For five days, he'd been taken out of this room, escorted to a laboratory where Garrison scientists had poked and prodded at him and quizzed him, and then taken back. They wouldn't tell him _why_ , no matter how many times he'd asked, but Keith had overheard them talking, stuff he didn't understand about his blood and his DNA, until one word had stood out. 

_Alien_ , they'd said, and Keith's breath had caught in his throat. 

After five days, he knew the Garrison had no intention of letting him return to classes and no intention of letting him go. 

Keith closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried not to panic. But it was hard when there wasn't anything he could do to distract himself, and when everything around him pointed to the worst-case scenario. 

Nobody knew where he was, and worse, nobody _cared_ where he was. It wasn't like he had parents who would be breaking down the doors of the Galaxy Garrison, demanding to know why they hadn't heard from him in almost a week. And he wasn't close enough to any of his classmates that they would care or even think to ask or check on him. The only person who might have was Shiro, but—no, it was stupid to get his hopes up. Just because _he_ was close with Shiro didn't mean that Shiro was going to come looking for him. 

Keith sat on the bed and pulled his knees up to his chest. He had no idea what the Garrison wanted with him—what they _would_ want with him—but if he was actually...an _alien_...he didn't want to sit here and spend the rest of his life being a _test subject_. 

He had to figure out a way to get out of here. 

A distant _boom_ sounded down the hallway, and Keith lifted his head from his knees. What the hell was _that?_

Footsteps thudded past his door, and Keith sprang across the room and pounded on it. "Hey! I'm still in here! Let me out!" 

Nobody answered. He didn't know _why_ he expected anyone to answer. 

Shit. What was happening out there? Were they under attack? Had one of their experiments gone wrong? Had something happened back at the main building? What was going to happen to _him_?

Had the Garrison forgotten they'd _stuck him here?_

He backed away from the door, heart hammering. He couldn't hear anything now; the world beyond his door was eerily silent. 

Shit, _shit_ , he was so screwed. 

The door slid open and a masked figure strode in, easily a full head taller than Keith and probably a good forty pounds heavier. 

Keith jumped back, startled, and landed in a fighting stance. Even without his knife, he could take them. He was pretty sure he could, anyway. 

The figure yanked down their mask. "Keith!" 

He _had_ to be seeing things. Keith shook his head, trying to clear his vision, but it was still— " _Shiro?!_ " 

Shiro crossed the room to him. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" 

Keith finally dropped his guard, more out of reflex than intention. He couldn't believe it. "What are you _doing_ here?" 

"Getting you out." Shiro took his elbow and led him to the door. "Come on. We don't have a lot of time." 

"Getting me—" Keith stopped where he was. "Shiro, if they find out you did this—" 

"Do you want to stay here?" Shiro asked. 

The idea of spending _any_ more time in this room sent a shudder through him. " _No_ , but—" 

"Then come on." Shiro gave him a brief, reassuring smile. "Don't worry about me."

Keith followed him into the hall, and Shiro pulled his mask back up over his mouth and nose. The hallway was quiet, but Keith could hear noises in the distance, off where he'd heard the explosion. 

"Did _you_ set off that explosion?" he asked. 

"Technically, no," Shiro said. "This way." 

They wove through the corridors, Shiro pausing at each intersection to check if anyone was around. Keith spent every step waiting to hear someone shout an alarm, or expecting to cross paths with a guard or a scientist, but the entire place was eerily devoid of people. 

"That explosion must have really freaked them out, if they all left," he said. 

Shiro nodded once. "This is the Garrison's most secure scientific facility. They have protocols for this." 

Keith stared at him, because _what_. They'd put him in the most secure scientific facility that the Galaxy Garrison _had?!_

Shiro led him through a heavy door marked "Service Only," with enough alarms and locks on it to make Keith think sirens would blare the moment they opened it. But nothing happened, just the heavy _click_ of the door latching once they were in the dark service tunnel beyond it. 

"There's no _way_ that door wasn't rigged to scream," Keith said. 

"It was," Shiro said. "But I have help." 

_Help?_ Keith couldn't believe what he was hearing. Not only had Shiro come for him— _Shiro had come for him—_ Shiro had found someone to _help_ him get Keith out. 

"Who did you find to help _me?_ " Keith asked under his breath. 

He'd thought it was quiet enough that Shiro didn't hear him, but Shiro stopped walking and grabbed his shoulders, his solemn grey eyes boring into Keith's. "Keith, I—" 

Keith's heart jumped into his throat, and he waited to hear what Shiro would say. 

Instead, Shiro shook his head. "We'll talk later. Right now, we need to get off Garrison property and get you somewhere they can't find you." 

"Where's that?" Keith asked. 

He couldn't see Shiro's mouth, but he could see the way his eyes crinkled at the corners, like he was grinning. "You'll see."

***

"Somewhere they can't find you" turned out to be the shack in the desert. Keith had only brought Shiro out here once, and he hadn't expected him to remember it, but Shiro didn't get lost at all along the way, which was even more impressive considering it had to be close to midnight and the desert wasn't exactly easy to navigate. Keith still had trouble occasionally.

Shiro pulled his mask off and checked the tracker on his belt. "Looks like we got out of there before they realized you were missing. You said no one else knows about this place, right?" 

Keith nodded. "Just me." _And you_. 

"Good." Shiro gave him a half-smile. "Then you should be able to stay out here safely." 

Keith looked back across the desert the way they'd come, back where he knew the Garrison was. "Looks like I'm going to miss midterms, then." 

The smile on Shiro's face faded. "Keith..." 

Keith shook his head and walked into the shack. He knew he should thank Shiro for getting him out of there, knew he should probably say _something_ , but he couldn't think. He could barely breathe. 

The only place he'd ever belonged had treated him like a prisoner. He was an _alien_. Shiro had broken him out of one of the most secure facilities in the entire Garrison and his whole future would be _shot_ if anyone ever found out about it. 

That was too much for anyone to deal with. 

Nothing had changed in the shack, and that was weirdly comforting, given that everything else Keith had ever known had been upended in the past week. He sank onto the crappy couch and buried his face in his hands. 

_I'm an alien,_ he thought _. Did Dad know? Did Mom?_

_Is that why they left me?_  
  
"Keith?" 

Keith jerked his head up. Shiro stood just inside the door, concern written all over his face. It was weird to see him in dark sweats, with a mask hanging around his neck and a hood pulled up over his dark hair, rather than his typical uniform. 

He walked over slowly, like he was trying to keep his distance, and held something out. "Here. I'll see if I can get some of your other things, but this was all I could grab." 

The familiar mark on the hilt glowed faintly in the dim light of the shack, and Keith's heart stopped. Shiro had brought his knife. 

Wordlessly, Keith reached out to take it. 

Shiro smiled briefly. "I'll need to get back before I'm missed. But if you need anything, _anything_ —" 

Keith gripped the knife's sheath. "Do you know why they took me?" he asked, and his voice sounded so much harsher than it should've. 

Shiro hesitated, just long enough that Keith could guess the answer. "I know what it said in the files that Matt found," Shiro said. "I don't know if it's true, though." 

Keith looked back down at his knife. "It's true. Or at least, the Garrison thinks it is. I'm...I'm not human." 

It was the first time he'd said it out loud, and Keith immediately wished he could take it back. Saying it out loud made it _real_.

No wonder everyone left him, no wonder he couldn't fit in, no wonder he was too abrasive and awkward and too much trouble. 

He wasn't human. 

Shiro's hand fell on his shoulder, heavy and warm, and the cheap couch dipped under his weight. "So what?" 

Keith barked out a harsh laugh. "Really? 'So what?' That's all you can say?" 

"It doesn't change who you are," Shiro said firmly. "It doesn't change that you're the best pilot the Garrison's ever seen and it doesn't change that you're my _friend_. They shouldn't have done that to you." 

"One of the world's foremost military and science facilities and you think they shouldn't have taken an alien specimen—" 

"You're not a specimen!" Shiro shouted. 

It stunned Keith into silence. He'd never once, in the entire time they'd known each other, heard Shiro so much as raise his voice, let alone actually shout. 

"You're not," Shiro repeated, quieter. "You aren't a specimen. You aren't something to be studied. They never should've touched you." 

Keith's throat tightened and he willed back the tears he could feel pressing against his eyes. "I guess they thought nobody would miss me." 

"They were wrong," Shiro snapped. "The first day you weren't there, I thought maybe you were sick, but after the second day, I went to your dorm to check and your roommate hadn't seen you. On the third day, I confronted Commander Iverson and he told me to stop asking questions." 

Keith snorted. "Can't believe he thought you'd listen." 

Shiro's grip on his shoulder tightened. "I got Matt and his sister, Katie, to help me find you. They were the ones causing the distraction while I got you out." 

Keith gaped. "You're all going to get _expelled_." 

"Katie's not at the Garrison yet, so the worst they can do is just not allow her to attend," Shiro said. "Matt and I..." He shrugged. "It was a risk we were willing to take." 

Keith stared at him, struggling to find the words, but only one came out. " _Why?_ "

Shiro blinked. "Why what?" 

"It's your future!" Keith shoved himself off the couch, away from Shiro, because he couldn't _understand_ this. He paced the small space in the front room, because he had to keep moving or else...he wasn't sure what he would do. "If they find out you broke me out of there, you'll be expelled, or you'll go to jail, or—or—you'll lose _everything_ and _how_ is that a risk you were willing to take? How could this possibly be worth it?"

Nobody else in his life had thought he was worth that kind of trouble; why in the hell did Shiro?

Shiro stood up and put his hands on Keith's shoulders, stilling him. "Because they _took you_ ," he said fiercely. "They took you away without saying a word to keep you locked up in a _cell_ because there's something about you they don't understand. I don't care if they expel me. I don't care if they arrest me. That _isn't right_ , and I'm not going to stand by and leave you there with them!" 

"I'm not that important!" Keith argued.

"Yes, you _are!_ " 

The vehemence in Shiro's voice knocked the wind out of him, and Keith couldn't think of a single thing to say in response.

Shiro dropped his hands away from Keith's shoulders and slowly sank back onto the couch. "You are that important, Keith," he whispered, but it seemed loud in the silence of the shack. 

Keith had to fight to speak over the lump in his throat. "You're apparently the only person who's ever thought it." 

Shiro raised his head to meet Keith's eyes, and the fear and vulnerability and _hurt_ there struck Keith like a punch to the gut. "You're the most important person in my life. And it doesn't matter if you're part alien or all alien, because you're _you_ , and I..." He let out a shaky breath. "I care about you." 

Keith's eyes burned and his breath hitched. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, because out of all of the things that had happened in the past week, this was the most unbelievable: that someone—no, that _Shiro_ —cared about him this much. 

He took two shaky steps toward Shiro, and then couldn't make himself move any more. "I care about you, too," he said, although how he forced the words out, he had no idea. 

He'd cared about Shiro for months now, maybe longer, but he'd never been able to bring himself to say it out loud for fear Shiro would leave him, just like everyone else had. 

But Shiro hadn't left him. Shiro had _come for him_. 

Keith had no idea what to do with that knowledge.

Shiro stood and pulled him into a hug, and Keith flung his arms around him and pressed his face into Shiro's shoulder. Nothing else about his life made sense right now, but with Shiro, he felt...steadier. Anchored. Like maybe even if things weren't okay right now, they could be again. 

"I didn't think anyone would come for me," he said, when he could finally speak past the lump in his throat. "When I figured out they weren't going to let me go, I thought I was on my own." 

Shiro shook his head. "No. Never. I don't think I've ever been as angry as I was when I found out they took you. And they expected me to just... _drop_ it and walk away." 

"Probably because you've got the Kerberos mission coming up in less than a month," Keith said, trying to keep his voice light. "Figured you wouldn't want to jeopardize that." 

"Then they thought wrong." Shiro's arms tightened around him. "Are you going to be okay out here?" 

Keith laughed hollowly. If there was anywhere he'd be okay, this desert was it. "Yeah. I'll be fine. I've spent a lot of time out here on my own." 

"That wasn't really what I meant," Shiro said quietly. 

His heart twisted, and Keith sighed. "I don't know," he admitted. "I'm still really confused about...everything. But it's not like the Garrison would actually give _me_ any answers. And I'll do better out here than in that cell."

Shiro nodded. "I'll come see you as much as I can. And if we can find anything—" 

Keith pulled back to look him in the eye. " _No_." 

"But—" 

"Shiro, seriously, don't." Keith shook his head. "Don't. You already got me out of there. Whatever they know about me, I'll find it myself. Okay? " 

For a moment, Shiro frowned, like he wanted to argue, and then he sighed and nodded. "Okay. But if you need help—" 

"I'll ask." Keith swallowed hard. "You probably need to get back. Before you're missed." 

Shiro closed his eyes and pulled Keith forward to rest their foreheads together. "I don't want to go." 

That made two of them. Keith fisted his hands in Shiro's shirt. "Yeah, I know the feeling." 

Shiro let out another shaky breath and then straightened up. "I'll leave the bike in its usual place with the keys. You can come get it whenever you need it." 

Keith hated— _hated_ —stepping back, but he also knew if he didn't let go of Shiro now, he wouldn't for the rest of the night. "Thank you." 

Shiro smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Any time." 

He was halfway out the door when Keith found his voice again. "Shiro." 

Shiro turned back to him. "What?"

Keith took a deep breath. "Thank you for coming for me." 

Shiro smiled again, and this time, it lit up his face. "I'll always come for you, Keith. I promise. I won't give up on you." 

For once in his life—maybe for the first _time_ in his life—Keith actually believed it. "Good." 

He stood at the door of the shack and watched Shiro board the bike and take off back toward the Garrison, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. Keith stayed where he was until the dust faded, until Shiro was so far away he couldn't even see the lights on the hoverbike anymore. 

He walked back into the main room and sat down on the couch once again, and picked up his knife to trace the markings on the hilt. 

He was still scared, still confused, but in the center of his chest was a warm, solid weight. He'd been wrong before. He wasn't going through this alone. Someone _did_ care. 

He had Shiro. He'd _had_ Shiro. 

And now, Keith understood, he always would.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Tumblr](https://mad-madam-m.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/mad_madam_m)!


End file.
